The Story of King Frost-The Yellow Fairy Book

The Story of King Frost-The Yellow Fairy Book

A step-mother once hated her step-daughter as many step-mothers seem to do in fairy tales. She sent her step-daughter out in the snow, to die. The husband protested, but not very much. While the daughter was out in the snow the frost king came to her and started freezing her. He asked her if she was cold. She told him that she was not, even though she was. She was very polite.

The frost king kept on trying to freeze her, but each time he asked her if she was warm, she always responded that she was. The frost king was so impressed that he gave her some warm clothing and lots of money then sent her on her way.

The step-mother wanted lots of money for her own nasty daughter, but her daughter was nasty, mean, and rude. When the frost king asked her if she was warm, she mouthed off to him and he froze her to death. The good daughter married a king.

What I liked

It’s kind of a fun story. The idea of meeting the frost king and living to tell the tale is cool (pun intended).

What I didn’t like

While I like the idea of being a decent person, I think there’s a line between being a decent, agreeable person and being a doormat. Sometimes, people have a hard time differentiating between the two states of being.

Being polite is one thing. If you go to someone’s house for a visit and it’s a little cool or warm, you can live with it for a while. It’s not going to hurt you to be too much of one thing for an hour. If someone is intentionally trying to make you uncomfortable, that’s a completely different thing. If you sit there and take that, you’re not being polite, you’re letting them walk all over you. I don’t necessarily think this story is a good lesson to teach children. Yes, you should be polite to people; no, you shouldn’t be ok with letting them intentionally make you uncomfortable.

True story–my ex-husband used to roll down the windows in the car when it was winter time. I would be freezing and if I said I was cold or asked him to roll up the window, he would tell me to put on a jacket. I was already wearing a jacket and I was still freezing. We’re talking about thirty-degree (Fahrenheit) temperatures. He got joy out of making me uncomfortable. This went beyond him being a little warm in the car; this was him being a jerk especially considering that he knew I was extremely sensitive to the cold (undiagnosed thyroid issue). It’s not ok to make someone physically uncomfortable for giggles.

Maybe there is a life lesson in this story–sometimes you do the right thing, and it all ends up crap anyway. A woman should speak up if a man is intentionally trying to freeze her to death, or if she’s sexually assaulted, or if some construction workers are cat-calling her on the street. This woman should speak up, but sometimes, if she does speak up, she’s the one who gets the blame and ends up worse off than if she hadn’t said anything. The other party usually ends up fine, which sucks. It’s not fair, but it certainly happens, because… penises… I guess. I don’t actually have a good answer for why crap like this happens; I don’t think anybody does.

Even though the supposedly nasty sister died, I’m kind of with her on this. She spoke up when someone was making her uncomfortable. It sucked that she ended up dead because of it.

Remember this–Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them?

The supposedly nasty sister lost her life because she somehow insulted the frost king by saying that she was cold, even though he was intentionally trying to freeze her.

What she supposed to say, “Please Sir, can I have some more”?

Overall

If you’re a doormat, maybe you’ll end up married to a king. If you speak up, maybe you’ll end up dead.

Weigh In

Truthfully, do you think you would have ended up dead had you met the frost king?

Was there a time in your life when you did the responsible thing and spoke up, but you got in trouble because of it? What happened?

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About The Author

There's way too much to write in this tiny space, but let's be short about this. Ashe is the creator, maintainer, and writer of One-Elevenbooks and has been since 2011. She likes to make artwork and write novels. She also likes the outside, in general. Ashe has a BA in Fine Arts and a BS in Information Technology.